Open Your Home to Strangers—And See the World

Never invite strangers to your house. That what our mothers would say! Not anymore!

Have you heard about home exchange programs? Exchanging your own nests with someone’s  half way across the world. Interesting idea and perhaps a little bit unusual to some of us. –Unthinkable! I say.

courtesy of http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/NX-AA252_EXCHAN_G_20120404122448.jpg

But, it is being done and in fact according to the author of the article in the Wall Street Journal, there are “… two networks, homeexchange.com and homelink.org. The former has 39,000 members in 146 countries; the latter has 13,000 members. We have done about half of our exchanges with each site.”  --cited from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204276304577263621466315472.html

The author has done it for thirty-two times since 2006. Here is how it works, you list your house up for exchange. Then find the right people in the right location to exchange. If you want to stay in London, and the people who live in London want to come to your location for vacation. Then you are in luck.

There are few detailed to be work out, according to the author:

Negotiable Demands

You would list your preference such as no pets, no children or perhaps limiting number of people and such. The stricter you are, the less chance you would find your criteria to be met.

A Month Is Good

The author preference is one month. I suppose you could put however long you want to be. But, the longer you let same strangers live the house. It is probably not desirable. But then, this is all about your preference and how you work out the details.

Small Worries

Last minutes cancellation due to financial difficulty, or medical conditions are often the reasons of things don’t work out the way it should be.  Another worry according to the author is the cleanliness of the house that you are exchanging with and the way they left your house behind. –Something to consider.

Another advantage of house exchange is you are saving your lodging fees which can be a lot.

Hope you enjoy this journey visiting the exchanging your very own nest to see the world. Now the question is, Are you ready to let strangers into your house? Living there like your own family? –I am not sure how I personally feel at this moment. Nevertheless, something to think about!

Until next stop,
Journey of Life